An Exclusive Interview with the Publisher of “The Shack”

The Shack Video Presentation is an incredible discussion between Derek Wilder, Executive Director of Lives Transforming, Inc. and Wayne Jacobsen, publisher of the NY Times Bestselling book The Shack. You will thoroughly enjoy the laid back atmosphere Wayne creates as he answers some of the most difficult questions about God’s love, God’s judgment and, of course, the controversial bestseller, The Shack.

The Shack Video Training Summary

1. Interview – Part 1: Chris Mishler, Senior Pastor, The Bridge, Anderson IN introduces Wayne Jacobsen and Derek Wilder.Wayne Jacobsen is the author of He Loves Me, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore and a collaborator of the NY Times bestselling book, The Shack. There was life before The Shack.Wayne had a life before The Shack that was less public, more relational.Anonymity made it easier to travel as a brother, helping others on the journey of knowing Christ and then begins telling us about the origins of The Shack.

2.Interview – Part 2: Wayne continues telling how The Shack came into being, discusses his encounter with Paul Young, author, and the story of the journey to publication of the NY Times bestseller.

3.Question 1: What does it mean to live in Papa’s affection?There are metaphors throughout The Shack that are familiar from your own books:He Loves Me, and So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. What have you come to understand it to mean, to live in Papa’s affection?

4.Question 2: Why was God the Father presented as a black woman in The Shack?Obviously in scripture God is viewed as paternal. One of the most controversial issues associated with The Shack is how God the Father was represented. Can you elaborate on that?

5.Question 3: Tell about your own Shack experience. The Shack experience is that encounter with forgiveness, right?Wayne tells the story that changed everything for him, and what The Shack meant in that context.

6.Question 4: At age 42, after 20 years as a pastor, a seminary education, you had to go to Australia to learn about the cross?On a trip to Australia, Wayne learned about the cross of Christ in a way he had never heard before.He tells what made everything new.

7.Question 5: Looking back from the second act of your life, what would you do differently in the first act?Given the opportunity to look back, Wayne tells what he would change in hindsight.

8.Question 6: What about hell and punishment, and how do we change the mind of the church?Wayne tackles a difficult question and clarifies important teaching about the love of God in the face of sin and human choice.

9.Question 7: You alluded to the fact that the last three years of your life have not been the best because of the book.Where do you think God is leading you through The Shack?Wayne gives an honest answer, touches on God’s purpose for the book, divine intervention in its success and his desire for rooms of 20.

10.Question 8: In The Shack, Papa talks about grace and works.You said the book was not written for Christians, but this is a big issue for Christians.How do we break from any type of religious bondage with the control that the church puts on people?

11.Question 9: Why do you think so many Christian churches dislike The Shack?Wayne explains how religion has put God into a Good Cop/Bad Cop situation with Jesus as finite minds attempt to grasp the eternal.

12.Question 10: How can recognizing ourselves in the loving parent metaphor of The Shack help us as parents?Parenting is another way God helps us to understand how he works among us.Wayne recommends a book on the subject and explains that God is far more than just nice in The Shack.

13.Question 11: Why don’t people want the love and freedom God has for them?I have friends like that—they are so close, but they just do not get it. What can I do for them?Wayne sheds light on whose job it is to teach others about freedom, and points out that we are only asked to love as we have been loved.